Manning River Times-Iguana Sportstar of the Week
Mariah Radburn – basketball
THERE was a bit of deja vu when Mariah Radburn was named in the NSW All Schools Basketball side to play in the Pacific School Games at Adelaide in December.
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In 1995 her mum, Elisha, was also named in the State team. She wore the number seven singlet – the same as her mum. And both were playing for Polding at the State championships.
Mariah, who attends St Joseph’s Primary School, played a leading role in Polding's victory at the State championships held at Canberra and she was one of four players from the team named in the side to go to Adelaide.
Mariah is the Manning River Times-Iguana Sportstar of the Week, earning a $50 open order at Iguana. She was nominated by Taree Basketball Association.
Polding dominated the State championships as indicated by their 36 point win over Mackillop in the final. This was the closest encounter Polding had during the tournament.
Mariah isn’t sure how many points she scored at Canberra.
“I didn’t really look at the score sheets,’’ she explained.
Still, she thought she was a reasonable chance of making the cut for the NSW team and said she was ‘really excited’ when her name was read out.
Mariah usually plays guard, but is happy to fill any position on-court.
In all, 15 countries will be represented across 11 sports at the Pacific School games, while all Australian states and territories will be involved.
The NSW squad will have a four-day training session at Maitland during the next school holidays in preparation for Adelaide.
This will cause some minor drama for Mariah, as she is also scheduled to take part in trials for the Hunter Academy of Sport at the same time.
Mariah started playing basketball in the school competition conducted by the Taree association when she was six years old.
She made a quick progression in the game and last year she played with Bellingen in the Northern NSW League.
She turned out for Taree Tornadoes in the Country Premier League this year, where at 12, she was the youngest player in the team.
Taree only won the one game, against Maitland, but Mariah was generally among Taree’s leading goal scorers in matches.
She enjoyed the challenge of playing in the older age group, but at this stage she isn’t sure what 2018 will bring on the representative front.
She also plays in the Taree women’s competition in the same team as her mum.
Mariah has represented her school in a number of sports including netball, touch, swimming, soccer and athletics as well as basketball, although basketball always takes priority if there’s a clash.